Basketball coach gets 15 years for rapes in Norway

STAVANGER, Norway—A U.S.-born basketball coach has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Norway after being convicted of raping 12 women, including four he had coached as juniors.

The Oslo district court on Friday found 35-year-old Emari Rashaad O'Garrow guilty of raping the women, aged between 16 and 38, over seven years. The court ordered him to pay 2 million Norwegian kroner ($325,000) in damages.

Court documents said O'Garrow, who is originally from Los Angeles, coached girls between 16 and 18 in an Oslo basketball club and also worked in a school and kindergarten. He admitted that he might have acted inappropriately but denied committing rape.

His defense lawyer, Johnny Veum, told the Norwegian news agency NTB that O'Garrow believes he was wrongly convicted and will appeal the ruling.